Xilinx strengthens embedded offering
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In a move which it says demonstrates its commitment to the embedded domain, Xilinx has announced a raft of new technology, including an upgrade to its MicroBlaze embedded processor.
Paul Evans, programmable systems marketing manager with Xilinx Europe, noted: “The embedded market is a particularly important domain and we are seeing exponential growth, with more applications needing more processing power.”
Version 7 of MicroBlaze includes a memory management unit, along with support for LynuxWork’s Blue Cat Linux 2.6. According to Xilinx, this is the industry’s only Linux port for fpga based soft processors. Users can apply the full MMU or opt to use the memory protection facility to ensure that critical elements of code are not overwritten.
Performance is also boosted by the Processor Local Bus, which Xilinx is naming PLBv46. This variant of IBM’s CoreConnect bus can handle 32, 64 and 128bit wide communications and works with MicroBlaze and PowerPC based fpgas.
“PLBv46 is important for customers looking for more performance from MicroBlaze,” said Evans, “and allows migration to PowerPC based systems.”
